Friday, April 27, 2012

Moving Thoughts Friday--Great Writing is...

Every Friday I’m going to ask a question. The questions I
choose might be ambiguous on purpose. The goal is to have you answer the
question according to your beliefs, where you’re at in life or a circumstance
that might have recently impacted you. The only thing I ask is that you provide
an explanation for why you answered the way you did.

It’s my hope to understand you better through this and also
to gain a greater understanding of humanity and how people make decisions.

Great writing is meant to crush us, entertain and move us,
return us to ourselves withsome greater understanding of the world and its
workings. ~ Betsy Lerner, THE FOREST FOR THE TREESYour turn…What do you believe great writing should do? Or complete this: Great writing is...

17 comments:

Great writing is...truth. One of my favorite novels is The Great Gatsby, and one of the reasons is because it showed the truth of how self-centered some people are. There's a line late in the novel, I'm paraphrasing, but it went like--they were careless people who didn't give a thought to the effects of their actions. Great writing makes me sit up and nod.

I always think of this Emily Dickinson quote, though it's about poems: "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." I think the same thing goes for a moving book--makes you look at the world a whole new way.

Truly great writing--and not just good writing--has something universal that rises above good story/character/craft. That universal element will appeal to a wide audience over a long stretch of time. Is that too broad? Only time will tell w/ most books. Conversely, there's something intensely personal about the books we each love that has nothing to do with great writing. I